Again, Kasipur hit-and-hot. About a decade back Kashipur block of Rayagada district hit the headlines in all national media causing hue and cry regarding its citizen surviving on mango kernels or about the death of children due to malnutrition. Again the number of mal-nourished children has reached about 700 in this area and many children have died. The administration ignores this subject.

Many NGOs, Government programmes and Company’s corporate social
responsibilities (CSR) activities have started focusing on the
malnutrition and hunger in the Kashipur block. All these schemes
failed and had not successful. One-rupee-rice and Food-security
schemes and establishment of Utakal Alumina Company and its mining
CSR activities are unsuccessful.

These malnutrition deaths have raised so many questions on the Utkal
Alumina and its mining company’s CSR activities in Baflimali.
Nothing is new in 2000 Utkal Alimina’s model village Andirakanch
had faced severe malnutrition and deaths relating ine

In
Focus

I
stood on the hilltop and thought what Rajni was telling me as we
climbed the hill. She told me, “The people of our village had a
close relationship with nature, with the hills and forests, streams
and rivulets and birds and animals of the area. They lived in
harmony.”

“This
hill is a sacred place. It contained water that flowed in its many
streams. The forests surrounding the hill held fruits and flowers,
plants and herbs. Medicinal plants such as harida,
bahada, amla, neem and bisalyakarani
grew here in abundance. In the fertile fields on foothills, we grew
rice, ragi, bajra, mandia and alasi. In our backyards, we also
produced vegetables. There was a vast stretch of arable land where
our domestic animals grazed. We sang and danced and used to make
merry on the lap of nature. We worshipped our Nature’s gods and
goddesses; offered pujas to deities and spirits who fulfilled our
dreams and aspirations. This hill was the source of our unending joy;
human misery did not touch our lives. The earth here sustained us;
the water washed away our pain and agony; the fire invigorated the
mind; the wind gave us our life force and the sky connected our mind
to celestial bodies. The hill was and still is our life. It is
sacred.”

I
tried to assess Rajni’s words which conveyed a sense of loss. I
asked her, “This is a mere bald hill. How can it be so sacred for
you? How can it be the very essence of your existence?”

Rajni
suppressed her tears and her anger and started laughing. She
continued, “Your shameless democracy has brought the hill to this
state. The sacred faith of the tribe has been shaken; they are
deceived. Your elected representatives have robbed the people of
their faith to achieve what they call progress.

To
this so-called development we are saying its a demonic
development.
They have offered the hill to wealthy capitalist. They have fed the
minds with the theory of demenolatry’s
development
or progress and prosperity by raising bauxite from the hills. They
are trying to teach us lessons ofdemonology
of development.
The story I told you as we climbed the hill was the story of our life
in the past. And now whatever you see here on this hill is the cruel
reality of the dying hill.”

She
continued, “You dismiss our faith as superstition. This does not
help us; it only harms us. Instead of advancing towards development,
we are led towards devastation. The climate has become unhealthy;
there is no life here, only death is waiting on the wings. By
winning over a handful of elected representatives you only devastate
our hills and forests. You play to the hands of wealthy
industrialists.”

“We
used to offer puja to our deities; we offered fruits and animals to
appease them. We did it for the well being of our community, but you
people said it was our superstition. What will you say to the
sacrifice of the faith of a community by the so-called people’s
representatives who play to the hands of a few wealthy businessmen
and industrialists? You can imagine the horror of the loss of man’s
deep-rooted faith and his deep love. This has precisely happened to
the hill,” she said.

“What’s
name of this sacred hill? What is its history? What is the story that
still lives in public memory?” I asked Rajni.

“The
hill was endowed with abundant natural resources. The villages on the
foothill bear eloquent testimony to the unforgettable story of its
joyful past,” replied Rajni. “Children bounded over the rocks, by
the sides of the deep rivers and lonely streams, wherever nature led
them. We loved nature. And Nature never did betray the heart that
loved her. It was her privilege, through all the years of this our
life, to lead us from joy to joy.”

She
continued, “We call this hill Baphlimali. In our tribal language,
the hill is called dangar.
On one side on the foothill, there flows the Indravati River.
Hundreds of villages and thousands of acres of fertile land lie on
other sides. More than twenty five perennial streams spurt from the
hill. Forests provide a green cover to the hill. The bauxite mine
underneath protected the ground water. The so-called agents of
progress called this bauxite the fruits of sin. The wind of progress
would blow rapidly once this bauxite is removed, they said. See how
Baphlimali is dying and Indravati is drying today as the evil of
exploitation is spreading all over this sacred hill.”

Rajni’s
words had a lasting impact on my mind. I felt as if a ghost was
dancing madly under the cover of development. Baphlimali’s past has
been crushed in achieving false progress. Exploitation was clearly
noticeable on the naked body of the bald hill. I could read the
anguish of the dry stream and the grim story of devastation which was
in store for the future.

Kashipur
is a village located in Odisha’s mineral rich Rayagada district
which was carved out of erstwhile Koraput district in 1992. The
village at an altitude of 827 metres above sea level could be
approached from undivided Koraput and Kalahandi districts. The name
appears in government files of both the districts. Kashipur, an area
of darkness. Hunger and malnutrition, disease and death often spread
in the village.

Administrative
officers move the village’s name from the records of one district
to those of another as per their convenience. Dignitaries and VVIPs
including the country’s Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of
the state visit Kashipur to see the horror of hunger. Announcements
are made to provide food to the hungry, only to get their votes in
election time. Ministers make such announcements. Kashipur
today stands witness to many such unfulfilled promises.

Funds
provided by the government are often embezzled by petty officials and
political workers. As a result, Kashipur’s geography changes, but
not its fate. No government implemented programmes to develop
cultivation, improve communication infrastructure, healthcare
facilities, and to manage forests and stream water in Kashipur. There
was no one to review the implementation and no one was answerable to
people. It was clear when Rajiv Gandhi gave financial assistance to
Kashipur.

In
the wake of starvation deaths which first surfaced in 1987, the then
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited the area and introduced a
developmental package called Orissa Tribal Development Project
(OTDP), under which International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD) allocated Rs. 60 crore to develop this area.

However,
there were irregularities in implementing the project; most of the
money was cornered by middlemen, contractors and politicians. The
development of Kashipur depended on communication, healthcare,
cultivation and forest management in the traditional way. Neither the
local political workers nor administrative officials were ready for
this. In this way, the occurrence of starvation deaths in Kashipur
has been used to get assistance which has been a good source of
income of a handful of unscrupulous middlemen who work in connivance
with petty officials.

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